Pastor's Corner - Fr. Cary's Reflections About "The Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish"

THE MULTIPLICATION OF THE LOAVES AND FISH
The story that we have just heard from the Gospel, the feeding of the five thousand, is one of the two stories in the New Testament that can be found in all four Gospels. The other one is the story of the Resurrection. The fact that the story of the feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle that can be found in all four gospels tells us of its great significance and importance. It must have made a huge impression on the disciples. For us modern listeners, what can we learn from this story?
Let us look at the important characters and elements of this particular gospel story. First, we have the disciples - Philip and Andrew - who were quite at a loss as to how they would be able to feed such a big crowd. One could ask the question, how deep really was their faith in Jesus at that point, considering that before this particular episode took place, they had already witnessed some of many healing miracles – Jesus made the lame walk, made the mute speak, raised to life a dead person. So the question that can be posed to Philip and Andrew is: If you have already seen how Jesus performed so many miracles before, why could they not trust that Jesus could actually perform another miracle to feed such a large crowd? There are times in one’s life when one is at very deep bottom, when the future seems to be so dark, when one forgets that Jesus can make wonders and surprise us with a miracle that can change our life anew. Second, we have the little boy who, out of sheer generosity, gave his five barley loaves of bread and two fish. It was a boy who, in those times in the Jewish culture, was considered to be insignificant because they thought that they had nothing yet to contribute in the community, but whose innocence and purity of heart made possible the miracle that has become a great source of teaching and inspiration in our own Christian discipleship. Five barley loaves of bread – barley loaves were the food of the poorest of the poor during the time of Jesus. It was also the cheapest and coarsest of all the breads. Two fish, about the size of sardines, possibly a salt-fish, which was plenty and very common at that time in the Sea of Galilee. A boy, five barley loaves of bread, and two salt-fish – three very insignificant creatures in the Jewish culture of that time - were instrumental in making this powerful miracle happen. What might have been too little and too insignificant in the minds of the people and the disciples was instrumental, after being transformed by God, in nourishing the crowd. One might feel that he/she might not have the right qualities needed in the building up of the Kingdom of God but, like those seemingly insignificant creatures in the Gospel, our simple participation and collaboration to the needs of our family, our parish
community, etc. can do wonders and miracles. One might – think that what he/she can do or contribute is too little but, that “little thing” if combined by all, can have a powerful and meaningful impact to our faith community and to our own unique faith journey. Those simple and seemingly insignificant elements in the Gospel today tell us that there is no such thing as too little or too insignificant to God; what is more important is our willingness to share what we have, regardless if it is too little or too many. God is after the heart of the giver.
Whatever our past or our present may be, God can truly make wonders in us, can transform us anew, can make miracles in us, so long as we are open and receptive to him. When Andrew volunteered the information that there was a boy with five loaves and two fish, he told Jesus “what good are these for so many?” One might have been judged too as not good enough because of what one did in the past or what the person has failed to do in the present, but we find great consolation in this gospel story that ultimately what is more important is how God sees us, the potential in us and not how other people view us because our value and dignity as a human person does not rest on our accomplishments, on our bank accounts or on how powerful and influential we are, but it does rest in the unchangeable truth that we are made in the image and likeness of God. For indeed, he does not call us because we are equipped or the best, but rather he equips the one he calls.
The story of the multiplication of the bread is usually associated with the Eucharist. Just like Jesus made use of very common stuffs in this miracle story, he also uses very common things to make himself accessible to us in the Eucharist in the form of the bread and wine. For some people, one of the most difficult things to understand in the aspect of our faith is how the piece of bread and the wine that the priest consecrates at Mass becomes the real body and blood of Christ. The bread and the wine after consecration are not just representations or symbols of Christ, but rather it is Christ himself. It is particularly challenging because we cannot see the actual change through our naked eyes, though there are countless miracle stories approved by the Church where there were actual physical transformations. God humbly reduces himself to wine and piece of bread so that he will be more accessible to us. If God has the power to create the world, why can’t he make himself present in a piece of bread. The difficulty of accepting the real transformation that happens in the consecration lies on the fact that some people cannot accept that God can be that humble - to the point that he can transform himself into wine and a piece of bread so that it will not be so difficult for us to have access to Him. This just sweeps my mind away – I cannot find any other explanation why God does this except that he loves us so much. We have been talking about generosity in this reflection, and there is no greater person who has taught us this than God himself, offering us his very self, his only Son, so that we might have the fullness of life. He did not stop there - He wanted to prolong that redeeming act on the cross by giving us the Eucharist. If one realizes and understands the great mystery and the love that takes place at the altar so that we may continue to experience the redeeming work of Christ on the cross, one has no other fitting response to it except to fall in love more and more with God and to receive Him with utmost reverence and adoration. As partakers of this great mystery of our faith, the Eucharist, the closest experience that we can have of heaven here on earth, have we become what we have eaten?
~Fr. Cary